Oaks under threat?

[Jolanta Zofia Nowak]

Is it true that our native oaks are facing the same kind of threat which wiped out the elms?

This is going to be catastrophic, isn't it?

[Adam Cheeseman]

Sudden Oak Death has been around for several years now but doesn't seem to be anywhere near as virulent as DED. For a good read on the subject try the website for Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, near Torpoint Cornwall, where they had quite an outbreak around 2002.

Cheers,

Adam

[Frimsley]

The scares about Sudden Oak Death don't seem to have come to a great deal. The species really under threat at the moment is the horse chestnut, with the rapid spread of a bleeding canker now thought to be caused by the bacteria Psuedomonas syringae

[Mercadante]

I recently read Oliver Rackham's book on Woodlands, which is pretty caustic about all the diseases affecting trees that we've spread over the world through importing plants and soil. I'm quite amazed by how little practical concern there seems to be about the whole issue - it made me feel queasy about buying anything from garden centres!

[Fungus Ken]

Originally Posted by Mercadante

I recently read Oliver Rackham's book on Woodlands, which is pretty caustic about all the diseases affecting trees that we've spread over the world through importing plants and soil. I'm quite amazed by how little practical concern there seems to be about the whole issue - it made me feel queasy about buying anything from garden centres!

At least Defra is trying to do something about it. See the Invasive Non-Native Species Framework Strategy for Great Britain for more information:

http://www.nonnativespecies.org/docu...rategyV6.4.pdf

Admittedly in certain notable cases this is too little too late.

Ken